Marilyn Paules Burman Diversity and Excellence Scholarship

Marilyn Paules Burman was born embraced by other cultures. Raised on the Agricultural Experiment Station, Torrington Substation, two of the first people to hold her were Moosa and Payenda, foreign exchange students from the University of Wyoming’s Afghan Project. Her father, Leon Paules, went on to head the agricultural experiment stations, state wide, relocating the family to Laramie in 1957. Marilyn graduated with a B.F.A. (honorary Studio Arts degree) with honors from the University of Wyoming. During her coursework and experiences at the university, she was exposed to many new cultures, beliefs, and customs, and also, encountered gender inequality. She is ever grateful for friends and family who shared their lessons of diversity, equity, and inclusion. These lessons were always emphasized in her world travels. Never more so than when, unplanned, she was able to teach 11 to 14 year old students, English as a Second Language at School No. 30 in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia for a semester. (Marilyn’s partial solution to what a spouse might do when their husband receives a Fulbright Scholarship to teach law at Petrozavodsk State University.) As part of her teaching, she started a pen pal project that progressed from 12 to 268 eager participants, linking Karelia to both Missouri and Wyoming. By the end of the semester, many of the children were signing their letters, “with love”, giving new meaning to To Russia With Love. Her continuing engagement with other cultures often expressed itself both in the art she purchased and the art she produced. Her award-winning etching, entitled Silhouette (seen behind her in the photograph) was created to make people aware of the ongoing drought and famine crisis in Ethiopia.
The etching was also featured to promote Hamline University’s College of Law, Hunger, Politics and Law Week in 1984 where Marilyn was Assistant Librarian for Acquisitions at Hamline Law Library. Her life came almost full circle when in 1991, Marilyn, then former Head of Public Services at the University of Wyoming, College of Law Library, and her husband, John, a local attorney and law professor, welcomed the first of four foreign exchange students into their home. Marilyn’s commitment to increase diversity continues with her decision to create The Marilyn Paules Burman Diversity and Excellence Scholarship. She can’t wait to see how these ideas might be embraced, and to encourage another on the same path of discovery: to share, encourage, and celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion.